1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an image processing system, an image processing method, and a computer readable medium. The present invention particularly relates to an image processing system, an image processing method, and a computer readable medium, which are able to clearly display the image of an object existing inside a substance, e.g. blood vessel inside a living organism, which is difficult to be viewed from the surface.
2. Description of the Related Art
A technology of capturing a video image of a blood flow inside a living organism and irradiating infrared laser light of a wavelength of 780 nm to a living organism while dosing indocyanine green (ICG) into the living organism is known, as is disclosed in “Evaluation of Skin Perfusion after Nipple-sparing Mastectomy by Indocyanine Green Dye”, Saitama Medical School 2005, Vol. 32, No. 2, P. 45-50, April 2005. Moreover, so as to overcome blur of images taken by an endoscope, an endoscope disclosed by Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 10-165365, for example, provides image restoration processing using a point spread function of an objective optical system, to an image signal within a predetermined range. This is considered to maintain a large incident light quantity to an image capturing section, while resolving blur of images due to lack of focal depth of the objective optical system.
When an object existing inside a substance, e.g. blood vessel inside a living organism is observed using light reflected from the object or using light emitted from a fluorescent substance such as ICG, the image of the object occasionally blurs. That is, the reflected light or the emitted light are scattered while passing through the substance, thereby blurring the outline of the object. When a doctor performs diagnosis or operation using the endoscope, the position of the object such as blood vessels should desirably be accurately recognized. Therefore it is desired to display a clear image from which the blur of the object outline is corrected. Moreover, a captured image of an object inside a substance should be desirably displayed together with information regarding the depth of the object.